The places we toured include a fish farm, water distribution facilities, farms (tomatoes, sugar, rice, manioc/cassava root, and corn), rice and sugar processing facilities, a dairy processing facility, a center for monitoring quality of seeds, Parc de Gueumbeul, Langue de Barbarie, a Peulh village, and a Wolof village celebration.
In general, I found the tours of farming facilities and factories to be less than thrilling. In general, each farmer/tour guide focused on techniques for increasing their productivity and some of the challenges they face in realizing maximum profits (think irrigation/planting techniques and detailed explanations of industrial processes and machinery). That was interesting to hear, but I was more interested in learning about how these farms and organizations played a role in the bigger picture of the socio-economic situation of the Senegal River Valley, like: What are the pros/cons of being a smaller scale farmer versus a large industrial cultivator? How are local economies affected by all of this industrial activity? What are the environmental costs? Who has access to these resources, and who doesn’t?
Eventually, I was able to satisfy some of my curiosity. Our final assignment was a 15 minute presentation (in French!) on a topic of our choice. I decided to take advantage of the assignment to do my own research on the implications of the two major dams on the Senegal River. The short 20 minutes a man took to quickly explain the purpose and creation of the dam was not sufficient for all the questions I had. I knew there had to be more to the story, and sure enough that’s what I found. There are tons of socio-economic, environmental, and health related consequences to the construction of the dams, and none of them are simple. Let’s take agriculture for example. Yes, the implementation of the dams has resulted in dramatic irrigated agricultural growth; however, this growth does not equally affect all local populations (like the Pulaar people, who depend on their grazing livestock, not farming). This farming has harmful effects as well, such as the pollution it produces in the same river where other people drink and bathe. Even something that sounds as simple as the creation of additional irrigated land for farming and increased economic productivity of a developing country is not entirely “good”.
I could go for a while on that rant, but in the interest of not boring you to death, I won’t.
Saint Louis
We spent two nights and three days at Saint Louis after the first five days in Richard Toll. Those might have been my favorite few days of the trip, because we had more variety in our daytime activities. We stayed at a place called Hotel Sindone, which was lovely and very French. The best part was definitely the food we ate there, we were each served a small basket of bread (including a croissant, a chunk of lemony bread, part of a baguette, and a chocolate pastry), a sweet crepe, fruit juice, REAL coffee, and a bowl of fruit. The first day, we arrived in Saint Louis, left our luggage in our hotel rooms, and walked into town to get lunch. I was delighted to find out we were having lunch at a middle-eastern restaurant, where I was happy with my hummous, vegetables, and labneh sandwich.
After that, we made a few stops around town, including the shop of an older, slightly eccentric artist. The old man was old and scrappy looking, and loved talking about the work he has done. At one point, he pulled out a huge piece of painted plywood with a copy of the Mona Lisa stapled in the middle and Wolof writing filling all the empty space. He told us of his almost decade long obsession with the Mona Lisa, and all of the research he has conducted in order to analyze the painting he finds so intriguing. He also showed us some smaller paintings featuring tidbits of Wolof wisdom. My personal favorite was a simple painting of a stick figure in a prostrate prayer position on what looks like a rug. The coordinating Wolof phrase translates to something like “Without clothes, prayer becomes scandalous.”
Africans are fun Muslims.
We returned to the hotel with just enough time to venture into town by foot again (this time without Prof Diallo) to look for a purse for Lauren and gifts for host families. Of course, we had to bargain for each purchase. I did pretty well, setting my price for some small bags made of beautiful African fabric at 500 CFA (1$) each. Not too shabby! Happy with our purchases, we returned for dinner at Hotel Sindone, which was another wonderful dining experience: perfectly seasoned carrot bisque followed by a main dish of a sautéed fish fillet and vegetables, and finished with a perfect portion of vanilla ice cream and raspberry sorbet (the combination became something along the lines of strawberry shortcake). The meal would’ve been good by US standards, but within the context of the meals our Senegalese families typically prepare (rice, meat, and heavy sauce), it was even more of a novelty.
The next day, we awoke to the same charming breakfast, left in the van to pick up a new guide, and visited Parc de Gueumbeul, a piece of land reserved to repopulate and observe African wildlife species that are endangered. In the front of the park were two large fenced-in areas to host the tortoises; one area for the babies, and one for those that were grown. I was surprised to see our tour guide walk right up to one of the gates, unhook the latch, and walk right in. We followed him, and stood right next to the huge tortoise as he talked about the animal (Lauren even sat on him!). He told us some interesting facts about tortoises: they hibernate for 6 months at a time, and can live up to 200 years. They are endangered because they are poached for their supposed aphrodisiac powers. Some Senegalese people eat their meat in the hopes of improving their sex lives, because the tortoises have long-lasting sex, or as our English-speaking guide so eloquently explained, “They make copulation for 3 hours of time.”
We continued our tour of the park on foot, and we saw a handful of singes rouges (red monkeys), a gazelle, some distant relative of the antelope with huge horns, and some ospreys (a predatory bird) along the way.
The rest of our stay in Saint Louis was a series of more delicious meals and various walks through the city. The biggest way we could see that Saint Louis is different than Dakar is the colonial construction of the buildings and that the streets of Saint Louis are MUCH cleaner than those of Dakar. We even saw our first trash can on the side of the road!
We returned to Richard Toll for the second half of our two week trip, and for the most part conducted more visits of agricultural facilities and were given time to create our final presentations which I mentioned earlier, that is until the weekend rolled around. The final experiences I had in Richard Toll were also the most interesting. And that, I am going to save for the next update.
Sorry for the delay in getting all this posted- it’s a lot to condense. I hope Mom will forgive me J
Grosses Bises,
Grosses Bises,
gk
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